Because destroying one iconic 80s/90s power ballad wasn't enough.

For POTO Crack Week 2024

Christine's heart pounded, once again, as she took in the scene before her. An ocean and a decade away and yet the similarities were frightening. A large grand piano, tidier than the organ before it, but still imposing with its presence. Light burned low, strangely fueled by candles in favor of modern electricity that was sweeping the world. For a second time, her gaze fell to the man standing in the center of it all-a ghost come to life that seemed to haunt her no matter how far she fled.

The years had changed their setting, but it had also changed her and she was no longer the cowering ingenue that had begun their previous encounter. This… night …that he spoke of. It was half a lifetime ago and if he thought he could lure her back with a mere mention. The arrogance!

This time when she spoke, her words were sure and edged in anger as she voiced the memories into that air between them. "There were nights when the wind was so cold…" she mused aloud, catching the slightest tilt of his chin in acknowledgement. "that my body froze in bed if I just listened to it right outside the window."

His melodic murmur flooded her senses. "Ah, but the days.." She glanced up just as his genstone gaze collided into hers. "There were days when the sun was so cruel.."

Her brow furrowed. "Cruel?"

"So cruel," he echoed, "that all the tears turned to dust and I just knew my eyes were drying up forever." She could only blink as he stepped closer, tone hardening with every step. "I finished crying in the instant that you left and I can't remember where or when or how. For the love of God, Christine, do not ask me how."

Her eyes grew flinty and she surged forward, bringing them nearly toe-to-toe. "You believe you are the only one who suffered, Erik? I banished every memory you and I had ever made!" Her breaths came short and heavy. "I had to…for all of our sakes."

She saw his throat working and trailed his view downward only to find her index finger settled squarely over his heart, the pad barely grazing the fabric of his vest. Her breath caught as he exhaled, breath puffing over her face as he whispered, "And yet…when you touch me like this…"

Her mind screamed at her to step away, but he quickly captured her finger lightly between his own. "And you hold me like that." A humorless bark escaped as she continued, "I just have to admit that it's all coming back to me."

He crept closer, the catch of his Adam's apple the only sign of emotion. Flatting all of her fingers against his chest. "When I touch you like this," His other arm snaked around her waist, pulling her further into him as the forbidden confession fell from his lips. "and I hold you like that. It's so hard to believe but it's all coming back to me."

She blinked up at him. "It's all coming back?"

A single nod of assent. "It's all coming back to me now. Do you not remember, Christine? There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light. It was glorious," His head angled closer, eyes positively blazing. " We were glorious."

She swallowed hard, but leaned closer, voice just above a whisper. "There were things I'd never do again, but then they'd always seemed right." And God help her, in that moment, they had. Oh, but they had…

"It was a night of endless pleasure," Erik purred, fingers tightening at the dip in her waist. "It was more than any laws allow."

Heaven help her, but his words brought her back to that night beneath a moonless sky, even as her mind pelted her with a reminder of his pretty words had brought. Baby…baby…

And yet..

"If I kiss you like this…" An enticing whisper and a gentle brush of lips over her forehead shattered any resolve that remained and she sunk against him. " Erik… "

"And if you whisper like that…God, Christine…do you know how I've missed the sounds of my name on your incomparable tongue!" His eyes shone with unshed tears as he gathered her closer, if such a thing were possible. I know it was lost long ago, but it's all coming back to me…"

She felt herself wavering, but to be in his arms again… "If you want me like this," she began, "and if you need me like that…It was dead long ago, but it's all coming back to me."

A rueful smile twisted his misshapen mouth. "It's so hard to resist nd it's all coming back to me."

'I can barely recall," It was a lie and they both knew it, but Christine could not stop the tentative smile in reply as Erik lowered his head and she pushed up to her toes, her words disappearing into the decreasing space between them. "but it's all coming back to me now."

But it's all coming back

And it was. All of the passion, desperation, and love

But also..

All of the lies, manipulation and despair

And she'd be damned if she let it destroy her again.

She wretched himself from his arms with a cry, ignoring the flummoxed expression he tried so hard to hide from the visible side of his face. "Christine?"

She moved to the piano, arms hugged to her front, the only method of protection she had. "I can't do this," she muttered. "There were those empty threats and hollow lies. All of it." She raised her head to meet his gaze, the hurt there a puncture wound to her heart.

Understanding dawned and he turned away, running a hand through the hair of his wig. "And whenever you tried to hurt me, I just hurt you even worse and so much deeper." The acknowledgement was a balm and she felt her arms fall to her sides with a sigh and he continued to muse to himself. "There were hours that just went on for days. When alone at last we'd count up all the chances that were lost to us forever."

" Forever…" she echoed, then approached. "But you were history with the slamming of the door and I made myself so strong again…somehow." She reached out to him, laying a hand between his shoulder blades, starling when he jerked at her touch. He glanced over his shoulder, meeting her eyes, swallowing hard as she confessed. "And I never wasted any of my time on you since then…until…"

Her hands moved to his shoulders, turning him to face her again. "But if I touch you like this…" He captured her fingers, pressing a kiss to her palm, her breath hitching and eyes falling closed at the gentle caress. "And if you kiss me like that…it was so long ago, but it's all coming back to me."

"If you touch me like this," he echoed, guiding her hand to his face, pressing her palm to his exposed cheek as he bent down and finally, finally! took her mouth in a kiss reminiscent of that night a decade prior. "And if I kiss you like that…"

She exhaled against his lips, already mourning the loss of them "It was gone with the wind, but it's all coming back to me."

"It's all coming back," he repeated, "It's all coming back to me now."

She chuckled. "Thank God for that."

He grinned back at her. "There were moments of gold and there were flashes of light. There were things we'd never do again, but then they'd always seemed right."

"It was a night of endless pleasures" she admitted, gasping as his hold on her became imperceptibly tighter.

"It was more than all your laws allow", he deadpanned, but her heart lifted when she caught a spark of something winking back at her in his gaze.

Once again, her brain flashed a final warning, one last attempt for her to see reason before she threw herself off the cliff for a second time. Baby! baby! Baby!

She promptly told her brain to go to hell

Instead, she pulled his head down and kissed him, drawing his arms around her as she backed him into the chaise at the other end of the room. He happily indulged her for a few moments, but drew away when his calves hit the edge of the settee. "Christine…"

She would not be deterred. "When you touch me like this and when you hold me like that, it was gone with the wind, but it's all coming back to me."

He glanced down, took in her swollen lips and charming smile, and motioned to his mask. "This…it has not changed.."

"Good." With a gentle push to the chest, she had him seated before her, moving between his legs to palm at his mask. "May I?"

He hesitated. "Christine…When you see me like this…and when I see you like that…"

"Then we see what we want to see," she replied, tenderly sliding the porcelain from his ravaged face and leaning down to press a kiss to the carnage. "All coming back to me," she murmured against his sunken cheek. "The flesh and the fantasies, it's all coming back to me."

"I can barely recall," Erik gasped, the sensation of her perfect lips on the horrors of his face rendering him utterly speechless, even all these years later. "But it's all coming back to me now."

Christine drew back, settling herself quite comfortably on his lap."Erik…If you forgive me all this. If I forgive you all that…"

"We forgive and forget," he agreed, leaning his forehead against hers."And it's all coming back to me now…"

She placed a hand against his cheek as the other began working the pins that held her hair, a thrill shooting down her spine as his eyes sparked to life. "When you see me like this…"

He shifted, working off his coat as her curls tumbled over her shoulders. "And when I see you like that…"

Her hands moved to the buttons of his vest. "Then we see what we want to see; All coming back to me."

"The flesh and the fantasies…" His longer fingers found the endless line of buttons down the back of her gown, fingers itching to touch every inch of exposed skin revealed by each one. "All coming back to me."

"I can barely recall," she quipped as she divested him of his shirt before reaching up to help him pull the gown from her body. "But it's all coming back to me now."

She grinned down at him, then wrapped her arms around his lithe frame. His kiss was heaven and home all in one and she had missed it more than she would ever admit. "And when you kiss me like this."

He did it again, murmuring, "It's all coming back to me now"

Her fingers tracked down his throat, over his chest and down. "And when I touch you like that…"

His grasp tightened again, firm but never harmful "It's all coming back to me now."

Her smile grew impish as she took his mouth, pressing herself against him as her fingers continued south. "And if you do it like this…"

He groaned, completely and utterly at her mercy. "It's all coming back to me now…"

Canting her hips, she quirked a brow. "And if we?"

"We absolutely do," he replied as he kissed her again. Harder. Longer.

And then they (finally!) banged (again! but quiet-is. Because, you know, child nearby). But it was (still) really, really (really!) good…again!.

Again...I have no explanation other than I had some free time and I could.

Sorry (but not really). Except to Celine Dion. You're amazing. I just saw and opportunity and took it.

Thanks for reading!